Rice cereal, teeth, malaria, and other fun stuff...

So, "How does malaria fit in?" you may wonder...I'll get to that. First, Fiona...

As with most new devices Fiona screeched and straight legged me when I first tried sitting her in a feeding chair. She had been studying us eating more and with two perfect little incisors I thought it was time to introduce food and utensils. Neither Jim or I are very allergic people (one of us is just picky...) and I kind of foo foo these food rules that have magically appeared over the last decade where-by babies should only eat orange vegetables first, then certain fruit, one at a time, a week at a time, and not before six months of age, yadda yadda... (All I can say is my mom crammed all kinds of stuff in me before I was even three months old and I survived.) so Fiona got a taste of apple sauce, bananas, and sweet potatoes. Ultimately she looked at me like I was crazy, smacked down a few bites of rice cereal, then tried to order up a side of booby. The plastic spoon, on the other hand, must be very flavorful.

Her teeth continue to bother her, at least that's what I claim to put an end to the colic stage, in my head anyway. She's worked her way through most of her extensive summer wardrobe, including a an afternoon spent lounging in her entirely impractical turquoise bikini with cover-up. I broke down and bought an "exer-saucer" my child development friend swears

impedes walking development but keeps Fiona extremely happy for twenty minute intervals. She runs three miles a day with me, all strapped in and shaded in her new orange BOB jogger, complete with shocks and suspension. Either she she loves the outdoors or I can't hear her over my i-pod.

Regarding blood born pathogens...As blogged in June healthy Jim was busy taking anti-malarial pills and heading off to Bangalore, India for whatever it is he does for Intel. After twelve days he returned with sandalwood sculptures, a traditional Salwar Kameez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salwar_kameez outfit for me, and quite likely a case of third world disease. It took about two months for the fever, chills, rigors (shakes), and malaise to set in but now they've persisted for three weeks. In the US, diagnosing malaria is tricky since the blood test is sensitive and not many MD's have seen it. He's still battling the unknown officially but all signs point to malaria. He's following-up, again, this week. Fi and I both feel great and if it is malaria it's vector born, not person to person.

Our house is still on the market (a month now) and we have lots of showings that keep me busy cleaning up baby clutter. We have our eyes on a place in Folsom so I hope the hard work pays off.